Australian scholastic Andy Nguyen SJ is putting his training as an architect to good use in Timor-Leste, where he is doing the second year of the Regency stage of his formation. He is coordinating the various Jesuit design and construction projects in the country. He shares this reflection of his experience since arriving in the country in April this year.
The Jesuit spirituality centre in Singapore turns 25 this month. The Centre for Ignatian Spirituality and Counselling officially opened on October 21, 1990, two years after Fr Paul Tan SJ, then Regional Superior of the Jesuits in Malaysia and Singapore, decided to convert the students’ hostel at Kingsmead Hall into a Jesuit novitiate and spirituality centre. Singapore was changing and growing rapidly, and the Jesuits saw in this the need to provide for the spiritual needs of the people.
The Japan and Korea Jesuit Provinces took collaboration a step further in September by holding their first plenary meeting of Jesuits and collaborators working in the social apostolate of the two provinces. The meeting took place on Jeju Island, in conjunction with the 2015 Gangjeong Peace Conference.
Trung is a man in pain. A 35-year old Vietnamese contract worker, married with two young children under the age of five, he lives in a government shelter in Taiwan recovering from severe burns he received at his workplace two years ago.
Korean Jesuit Mincheol Kim was ordained deacon on September 5. Before his ordination, he went to Taiwan for his Arrupe Month, a period of reflection and discussion that prepares Jesuit scholastics for ordination. He shares three fruits of his Arrupe Month experience from July 16 to August 8.
To foster collaboration at various levels between the Chinese, Japanese and Korean Jesuit Provinces, the three provincials have decided to set up an annual conjoint summer Arrupe Month. The first conjoint Arrupe Month was held from July 16 to August 8, 2015 at the newly built Franciscan spirituality centre in the small and quiet historical township of Daxi in Taiwan, 30 km south of Taipei.
The impact of the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe has jolted Australia into realising that it needs to respond more urgently and generously to the humanitarian disaster caused by the Syrian conflict. Jesuit Refugee Service Australia (JRS) welcomed on September 8 the Australian government’s determination to provide further assistance to those fleeing conflict in the Middle East.
JRS urged the government to increase immediately the current annual humanitarian intake from 13,750 to at least double that, given the scale of the current crisis.
On September 8, Fr Brian McCoy, Provincial of the Australian Jesuit Province, flagged the release of the Province Policy for Safeguarding Children and Vulnerable Adults. The document is addressed to all Province members and personnel.
From May to August, the Chinese Jesuit Province saw four Jesuits from three countries ordained to the priesthood in ceremonies held in its four territories. A Jesuit from Burundi was also ordained to the diaconate during this period.
John Joseph Zhang SJ was ordained priest in northern China during the Easter Season. He has been assigned to Casa Ricci Social Services in Macau.
In the front row pews during evening mass at the Church of St Ignatius in Singapore on July 26, family members gathered to celebrate the ordination to the priesthood of two not-so-young Jesuits. It would be typical to see both men seated amidst their respective families ready in turn to offer them up to the rest of the Church. What was not so typical was that it was just one family – with both Jesuits seated on either side of the same mother, and among the same siblings and relatives – supporting them into the service of ordained ministry.